Ron Bracken looks back on the top Centre County coaches he’s covered in his CDT career
Editor’s note: With most sports on hold and TV networks left playing replays, Ron Bracken is taking a look back at some of the top teams, players, coaches and games he’s covered in his more than four decades at the Centre Daily Times.
They were the backbone of the high school sports scene then and still are. They’re the men and women I dealt with most often during my years at the CDT and they left their mark, not only on their sport buy on my memory.
They were the high school coaches who, when I began, were already legends or soon would be.
From football to baseball, softball to wrestling and track, they were outstanding. And they made my job easier and far more enjoyable than any job should be. If I needed to talk to them after a tough loss, they were available. If I had to call them at home, they picked up the phone. They understood their role as a spokesperson for their team.
Where to start?
How about with the man who coached three state championship teams and raised the level of scholastic softball in Centre County to where it is recognized across the state for its excellence?
Recently retired, Philipsburg-Osceola’s Jim Gonder led the Lady Mounties to 682 win and 151 losses. He took the Lady Mounties to the PIAA finals five times and left with three gold medals. He built the P-O program into a powerhouse and forced the other teams in Centre County to raise their level of play to the point where Bald Eagle Area, Penns Valley and Bellefonte all won state titles. The battles between P-O and BEA were epic, generating large crowds every time they met.
Another softball coach, BEA’s Dave Breon may be a polarizing figure but there’s no doubting that what he did with the Lady Eagles was spectacular. In his six-year tenure, Breon took the Lady Eagles to the PIAA finals four times. He won twice and lost a third game in extra innings.
On the baseball field, Bellefonte’s Don Robinson took over the Raiders in 1964 and breathed life into a moribund program. Between 1964 and 1977, Bellefonte won seven Central Penn League crowns and claimed four District 6 titles and played in the first PIAA tournament.
One of Robinson’s assistants was Denny Leathers, who took over when Robinson stepped down and kept the Raiders rolling, taking seven CPL titles and a third-place finish in the 1987 PIAA playoffs.
Robinson and Leathers engaged in legendary battles with P-O’s Gerry Davis. Some called him Shorty, some called him Nails, but everyone respected him and his teams. The Mounties were notorious for pulling out games in the late innings as they won seven District 6 titles and nine Central Penn League crowns.
Davis was a battler and some of his most heated battles came with umpire Jake Salsgiver, himself a legend.
Once there was a ball rifled down the third base line, which Salsgiver ruled a fair ball when Davis thought it was foul. Having the last word, Salsgiver said, “Shorty, yesterday that was a foul ball and tomorrow it’ll be a foul ball, but today it’s a fair ball.”
Moving to football, there are a handful of outstanding coaches who come to mind. First is the late Jim Williams at State College.
He played for State High, went on to start as a center at Penn State, spent several years as an assistant at Bellefonte and then returned to his alma mater where he took the Little Lions to unprecedented heights in the early 1970s when they put together a 36-game winning streak. They won a mythical state title when they beat Pittsburgh Central Catholic in the snow at Memorial Field. As fate would have it, their regular-season-ending game was a battle between the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the state in 1973. To this day that remains the best high school football team I ever covered. Williams stayed at State High for eight years, compiling a record of 65-13. Then he moved on to the Penn State coaching staff.
Another iconic coach was BEA’s Gawen Stoker. He took over at Wingate in 1972 and stayed until 1994 and put together a record of 151-96-3. His 1988 team won a District 6 title. He was an innovator, once bringing a man in motion and having him do a somersault when he got behind the center. The nose guard was so distracted he was an easy block for the center and the play went 13 yards for a touchdown.
Stoker was also one of the driving forces to get the state playoffs started and also teamed with P-O’s Jack Bailey to launch the Mid-State Classic all-star game that later became the Lezzer Lumber Classic.
Bellefonte’s Bill Luther remains revered at the school. A graduate of Osceola Mills High School, Luther played on Penn State’s unbeaten 1948 Cotton Bowl team.
Penns Valley’s Bob Sealy set the standard for the Rams on the football field, putting together a record of 70-40-1 and coached the last two Ram coaches, Mike Flickinger and Martin Tobias.
There was no shortage of outstanding wrestling coaches in the county during my career.
BEA’s Dick Rhoades lifted the Eagle program to the point where in was named the No. 1 team in the country in two different polls following the 1999 season. That season it won the inaugural PIAA team duals champion and the PIAA individual tournament, and also became the only public school to win the Beast of the East tournament. Rhoades’ career record was 399-129-10. His teams won every District 6 title in the decade of the 90s.
His main rival was P-O, where another legend, Dave Caslow, sat across the mat from him. Caslow coached three more years than Rhoades and amassed a career record of 405-171-4.
Penns Valley’s Joe Hammer made his mark on the county landscape before Rhoades and Caslow arrived. Hammaker produced a pair of undefeated teams at Penns Valley. Two of his Ram teams went undefeated — 1962-63 and 1965-66. The latter also won the District 5 championship.
Other notable coaches include State High wrestling coach Ron Pifer, Penns Valley basketball coaches Karen McCaffrey, Dave Edwards and Terry Glunt, State High baseball coach Ken Barto, BEA baseball coaches Alex Murnyack and Doc Etters, whose 1961 team won the Central Penn League title, giving the school its first championship of any kind, State College track coach Jackson Horner and BEA track coach Jeff Jodon, whose 1999 team shared the PIAA championship with Mount Carmel, giving the Eagles two state championships in the same school year.
As a group they were not only great people and successful, they were great people and I enjoyed them all.
This story was originally published May 10, 2020 at 7:30 AM.